2010s in hacking

decentralized, internet-based protest movement which organizes cyber attacks and demonstrations for freedom and against various forms of grievance

ransomware cyberattack

Stuxnet is a malicious computer worm first uncovered on 17 June 2010 and thought to have been in development since at least 2005. Stuxnet targets supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and is believed to be responsible for causing substantial damage to the Iran nuclear program after it was first installed on a computer at the Natanz Nuclear Facility in 2009. Although neither the United States nor Israel has openly admitted responsibility, multiple independent news organizations claim Stuxnet to be a cyberweapon built jointly by the two countries in a collaborative effort know

spyware software created by the NSO Group based in Israel

family of encrypting ransomware discovered in 2016

North Korean cybermilitary unit

The CryptoLocker ransomware attack was a cyberattack using the CryptoLocker ransomware that occurred from 5 September 2013 to late May 2014. The attack utilized a trojan that targeted computers running on Microsoft Windows, and was believed to have first been posted to the Internet on 5 September 2013. It propagated via infected email attachments, and via an existing Gameover ZeuS botnet. When activated, the malware encrypted certain types of files stored on local and mounted network drives using RSA public-key cryptography, with the private key stored only on the malware's control servers. Th

August 2014 computer security incident which led to the leaking of celebrity photographs

modular computer malware

series of documents released by WikiLeaks in 2017

cyber espionage group

large cyberattack that affected Europe and North America in 2016

2014 North Korean cyberattack on Sony Pictures and subsequent document leak

malware that turns computer systems running Linux into remotely controlled "bots"

thumb|Suspected FinFisher government users that were active at some point in 2015.

sophisticated malware

computer Trojan horse

Russian hacker group

series of powerful cyberattacks

MEMZ is a trojan horse created for Microsoft Windows. The name of the malware refers to its purpose as a humorous Trojan intended to replicate the effects of early computer viruses.

Duqu is a collection of computer malware discovered on 1 September 2011, thought by Kaspersky Labs to be related to the Stuxnet worm and to have been created by Unit 8200. The Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySyS Lab) of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary discovered the threat, analysed the malware, and wrote a 60-page report naming the threat Duqu. Duqu got its name from the prefix "~DQ" it gives to the names of files it creates.

Andrew Alan Escher Auernheimer ( ; born ), best known by his pseudonym weev, is an American computer hacker and professional Internet troll. Affiliated with the alt-right, he has been described as a neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and antisemitic conspiracy theorist. He has used many aliases when he has contacted the media, but most sources state that his real first name is Andrew.

information leak and investigation revealing alleged cyberweapons deployment against civilians and democratic dissidents

computer hacker group that released sensitive NSA data

heist via the SWIFT network from a Bangladesh Bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York

2019 album by Radiohead

Emotet is a malware strain and a cybercrime operation believed to be based in Ukraine. The malware, also known as Heodo, was first detected in 2014 and deemed one of the most prevalent threats of the decade. In 2021, the servers used for Emotet were disrupted through global police action in Germany and Ukraine and brought under the control of law enforcement. Despite this disruption, Emotet resurfaced in subsequent years with new capabilities, continuing to be regarded as one of the Internet’s most persistent and adaptable threats.

OurMine is a hacker group that is known for hacking popular accounts and websites, such as Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter accounts. The group often causes cybervandalism to advertise their commercial services, which is among the reasons why they are not widely considered to be a "white hat" group. As of 2016, their commercial services included security scans and audits. Payments were collected through PayPal. The group states they do not change passwords of hacked accounts.

Russian GRU cybermilitary unit, part of Fancy Bear

Mimikatz is both an exploit on Microsoft Windows that extracts passwords stored in memory and software that performs that exploit. It was created by French programmer Benjamin Delpy and is French slang for "cute cats".

VPNFilter is malware designed to infect routers and certain network attached storage devices. It is estimated to have infected approximately 500,000 routers worldwide at its peak, though the number of at-risk devices is larger. It can steal data, contains a "kill switch" designed to disable the infected router on command, and is able to persist should the user reboot the router. The FBI believes that it was created by the Russian Fancy Bear group. In February 2022, the CISA announced that a new malware called Cyclops Blink produced by Sandworm had replaced VPNFilter.

Carbanak is an APT-style campaign targeting (but not limited to) financial institutions, that was discovered in 2014 by the Russian cyber security company Kaspersky Lab. It utilizes malware that is introduced into systems running Microsoft Windows using phishing emails, which is then used to steal money from banks via macros in documents. The hacker group is said to have stolen over 900 million dollars from the banks as well as money from over a thousand private customers.

malware package

Rensenware (; stylized as rensenWare) is a ransomware that infects Windows computers. It was created as a joke by Kangjun Heo (; alias "0x00000FF") and first appeared in 2017. Rensenware is unusual as an example of ransomware in that it does not request the user pay the creator of the virus to decrypt their files, instead requiring the user to achieve a required number of points in the shoot 'em up video game Undefined Fantastic Object before any decryption can take place. The main window displays Minamitsu Murasa, a character from the game. Heo released a patch that neutralizes Rensenware aft

Dridex, also known as Bugat and Cridex, is a type of malware that specializes in stealing bank credentials through a system that utilizes macros from Microsoft Word.

YouTuber creating videos mainly about scam baiting

Locky is ransomware malware released in 2016. It is delivered by email (that is allegedly an invoice requiring payment) with an attached Microsoft Word document that contains malicious macros. When the user opens the document, it appears to be full of gibberish, and includes the phrase "Enable macro if data encoding is incorrect," a social engineering technique. If the user does enable macros, they save and run a binary file that downloads the actual encryption Trojan, which will encrypt all files that match particular extensions. Filenames are converted to a unique 16 letter and number combin

malware

Computer hacker group based in Iran

cyberattacks targeting the United States

botnet used to census the entire IPv4 internet

breach of Bitcoin exchange platform Bitfinex

Pornographic website

first registered successful hacking attack on power grid

group of hack creators known for their work in the Nintendo Switch piracy scene

defunct pornographic website

peer-to-peer botnet

Alleged cyber-warfare attack with wiping malware in March 2013

Chinese cyberespionage group

TeslaCrypt was a ransomware trojan. It is now defunct, and its master key was released by the developers.

Shamoon (), also known as W32.DistTrack, is a modular computer virus that was discovered in 2012, targeting then-recent 32-bit NT kernel versions of Microsoft Windows. The virus was notable due to the destructive nature of the attack and the cost of recovery. Shamoon can spread from an infected machine to other computers on the network. Once a system is infected, the virus continues to compile a list of files from specific locations on the system, upload them to the attacker, and erase them. Finally the virus overwrites the master boot record of the infected computer, making it unusable.

Blackshades is a malicious trojan horse used by hackers to control infected computers remotely. The malware targets computers using operating systems based on Microsoft Windows. According to US officials, over 500,000 computer systems have been infected worldwide with the software.

Hitler-Ransomware, or Hitler-Ransonware, is a form of ransomware created in 2016 originating in Germany. It requests payment within one hour; otherwise, it will delete files from the infected computer.

malware

computer virus

windows-platform based Trojan horse computer malware

2015 leak of personal data from an online dating service

Russian hacking group